Getting Reacquainted
by Epiphany sola Gratia
Summary: This short is a sequel to Identity Theft and is in answer to a 100 word challenge.  Anders has had to make a tough decision on his next move after discovering Justice's betrayal.  Who should he reveal himself to?
1. Getting Reacquainted

**Getting Reacquainted**

It was night when Anders prowled the grounds outside of Vigil's Keep, hoping for a glimpse of Sigrun.

After months of wrestling with the decision, Anders had chosen to reveal himself to Sigrun. He wanted someone who knew and cared about him to know he was actually alive and not responsible for the atrocity that the "fake" Anders had committed in Kirkwall.

Lacking someone who cared about him, he settled on Sigrun. At least she knew him.

He hoped to catch her when she was on guard duty and they could talk alone.

Ironically, it was she who caught him.

* * *

><p><em>This short was in answer to the Cheeky Monkey 100 Word Challenge posted by suilven on the Cheeky Monkeys of Dragon Age message board. It is exactly 100 words, not including the title.<em>

_It is intended as a sequel to **Identity Theft**._


	2. Caught

**Caught**

Stunned and winded Anders lay on the ground, gazing up the line of Sigrun's torso to where her breasts jutted out in armored cliffs as she straddled his neck: her knees pressing into his shoulders, a dagger poised to impale his eye.

There was a sudden bark of disbelief, "Anders? We were told you were dead!"

"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," he wheezed, struggling to breathe while pinned under her, "though you seem to be in the position to correct that."

"Idiot!"

"I missed you, Sigrun." He added in oxygen deprived sincerity, "I missed them too!"


	3. Bruised

**Bruised**

Anders could feel the side of his face swelling and imagined the blossoming shades of purple and red. On consideration he supposed he should be grateful that she did not simply gouge his eyes out of his head for the comment…one for each of the voluptuous mounds gracing her chest.

He shook his head, trying to clear the muzzy line of thinking that had earned him the bruises in the first place, and focused on following her silently through the halls of the keep.

"Why not just bring me to Warden Commander Lucasta?"

"She is not the Commander anymore, Anders."


	4. Quarters

**Quarters**

Sigrun pulled him through the door of her quarters roughly, giving a cursory glance down the hallway, "Tomorrow I will sneak you out and take you to Amaranthine. We can go talk to Lilah. She will know how to contact Nathaniel; she always knows how to find him. Once she even had people locate him when the Wardens sent him to the darkspawn tunnels near Kirkwall."

Oblivious of what she said, Anders was leafing through a book he had found on Sigrun's bedside table, asking, "What is an `_Antivan Milk Bath_?'"

"Drop it!" She seethed, "You're sleeping on the floor!"


	5. Pantry

**Pantry**

Sigrun rifled through the shelves of the night shrouded pantry. It was not uncommon for recruits to raid the pantry in the throes of hunger, so it was never locked. She just hoped no one else would come until well after she left.

Anders was hungry, so hungry his stomach growled like an Archdemon.

She pulled down a loaf of rye bread and some apple preserves the cook had canned a week ago, tucking them under her arms.

As she made her way back, she wondered, _"By the Ancestors, why do this for some idiot mage I don't even like?"_


	6. Confession

**Confession**

"Sigrun…you still awake?" Anders whispered quietly from where he lay on the floor.

He was rewarded by a muffled grunt and took that as a cue to continue, "I really do appreciate all of this. When I finally escaped from the Deep Roads, I knew I had to come here first. It's funny, when things go well, we take those dear to us for granted. We assume they will always be there. When you come close to losing them, you realize their importance."

In the darkness she caught her breath, listening.

"I hope Pounce is alright!"

_Pillows can hit hard._


	7. Truth

**Truth**

It was hard to admit, but Sigrun had missed him: the idiot mage with the mouth.

His desertion had hit her hard.

When word came of what had transpired in Kirkwall, all she could think was, _"This is a mistake… it has to be. Anders would not do that!"_

She had gone to Nathaniel, who was strangely quiet on the matter, and asked him what he knew. Had he come across Anders while in Kirkwall?

In response, Nathaniel had advised her to forget Anders: mourn him as was proper and then move on with her life.

Now he was here.


	8. Dare

**Dare**

This was… _awkward_.

He felt tempted to collect a souvenir while she slept… a pair of knickers for luck.

The wiser voice said, "Bad idea… she will catch you and kill you… with excessive relish…"

The voice she would characterize as the "idiot mage" persona argued, "When will we ever get an opportunity like this again?"

"She has knives," the wise voice argued, "very sharp ones. She almost stabbed one through my right eye not more than an hour ago."

"Good point… literally…" the other voice conceded.

He tucked the knickers in his pocket.

He promised to return them later.


	9. Morning

**Morning**

The sound of the cock jarred Sigrun awake and she rolled onto her side…

…into Ander's chest, as he slept soundly beside her on the cot.

Anyone else hearing the indignant roar would have likened it to a raccoon forced into a tree.

Once again Sigrun straddled Ander's neck, pinning his shoulders with her knees, and he blearily looked up her torso. Though unarmed, she was ready to rip him apart with her hands, "Are you so sick of living that you would try my patience?" she growled.

"Sleep walking?" he offered.

"Not likely," she snorted, resolving to spare him.


	10. Grave

**Grave**

Leaving the Keep early, Sigrun left a vague note at the current Commander's door stating she had a sudden concern needing attention. She felt a fleeting sense of gratitude that the Commander did not value her and would not question her absence further.

The pair, dwarf and mage, stopped briefly at the monument erected to the Commander who had initiated them into the ranks of the Grey Wardens and had left to meet her Calling three years past.

On looking at Lucasta's name carved in stone, Anders was sorrowful. He had been robbed of a farewell and felt it keenly.


	11. Freedom

**Freedom**

Freedom had smelled like pie.

He vaguely remembered that conversation with Lucasta, so long ago when they walked the streets of Amaranthine, smelling a newly baked pastry on a house wife's window sill. It filled him with a sense of joy then.

Now the streets were void of that happiness though he had far more freedom than he had ever possessed. No Templars dogged his days. He was answerable to none.

It had cost him dear, this freedom: his cat, his name, his friends.

Newly christened "Kristoff" could not smell freedom with Ander's nose.

Freedom now smelled like ripe garbage.


	12. Bush

**Bush**

"Are you alright, Anders," Sigrun queried as he walked in grieved silence.

"That is not my name anymore," he spat, stopping suddenly, "It belongs to a slain monster, and I am not a monster… am I?"

"No, you are not a monster," she stated in certainty.

Satisfied by her answer, he began to walk again.

"You know what would make you feel better?" she offered, interrupting his brooding.

He turned to her with a questioning look.

"You could set that bush on fire!" She smirked before adding, "It's an evil bush!"

They were both grinning as the "evil" bush burned.


	13. Frustration

Frustration

"He didn't take the cat!"

"By the Ancestors he r_efused_ to take the cat."

_"After all the misery, the whining last night over how important that cat was and having to trek to Amaranthine in the early morning hours after a miserable night sleep, he did not take the cat."_

When they had gone to see Lilah, Sigrun had expected he would run in slow motion, scoop up the creature and swing it in a romantic arc through the air, but no, he did not take the cat. He watched the animal mournfully, thanked Lilah and walked out the door.


	14. Flushed

Flushed

"_The stone take you!" _Sigrun bellowed after they had left the city gates at a safe distance behind them, unable to withhold her frustration a step further, "Ever since I tackled your sorry ass last night, you have done nothing but whine about that cat. Now, you have the opportunity to take back what is yours and you leave it behind. What is wrong with you? Look at me when I talk to you!"

Stopping he turned to face her then, looking down at her with an inscrutable expression as she blustered at him and her face flushing so beautifully.


	15. Finally

Finally

Without a word, he lifted the beautifully infuriated dwarven woman into the air, her greaves kicking angrily at his legs and missing. Sigrun continued to sputter and swear at him, calling him a series of insulting names until he smothered her words with his own lips.

After a moment, Sigrun perceptibly melted, responding to his urgency, wrapping her arms around his neck as he cradled her body against him.

Finally he broke the kiss, looking into her eyes and smiling, "Sigrun, did you think I only came back for Pounce?"

Stunned, she choked, "Yes."

"Silly," he chuckled, tweaking her nose.


End file.
